Road Trip

Excitement about planning the trip. You look at the maps and plan the route. Call friends along the way to tell them you might drop in, Google reviews on hotels, check prices. The departure date gets closer, you decide which clothes you will pack, go to the library for a good audio book, freeze water jugs for the ice chest. The day is here at last. You are prepared for this trip. When you are all in the car everybody whoops and seat dances, we are on our way at last!

Excitement about the decision to make the healthy changes in my life. I order books on Amazon, 150 Healthiest Foods, The End to Overeating. I call my doctor and make an appointment for baseline blood work, check that cholesterol, Vitamin D level etc. I Google recipes, check out when and where farmer’s markets are set up in my area. I design charts to track my stretching, aerobics and strength activities, vegetable intake, water consumed. The day is here at last, I am prepared for these changes.

First day of the trip. The car is packed so full it is hard to find things when you stop, just where did you put those extra sunglasses? Where did that cooling breeze go? Who could have predicted the triple digit temperatures? That hike you planned along the way isn’t as much fun as you thought, hot and dusty.

I jump on the recumbent bike, headphones and ipod ready. Adjust the ipod to a lively, favorite song and start pedaling. I spend a few minutes trying to remember how to program this machine, it’s been a long time since I used it. Ten minutes in and my knee starts to complain. Wait! This is supposed to be the exercise which is knee friendly.

You push on through passed the dinner hour, don’t want to stop for a hotel too early, let’s get as many miles as we can under our belt so we can relax on our drive tomorrow. Check the list printed off the internet, best hotel deal coming up in the next town. You are pretty tired, it’s late, time to stop. What is that weird spray of water around all the lights? BUGS! Millions of little bugs surround every light, gather around the doorway of the hotel. “Sorry”, the blond girl behind the desk says, “No rooms. Big event at the speedway, no rooms in the next town either.” With some cell phone work you find a room in the hotel which you realize is the one with the bad reviews when you Googled it. Hot and tired, you snatch it up.


I decide to kayak and do some leg exercises in the water, maybe these won’t be so hard on the knee. Thirty minutes later I have located the kayak paddles and the combination to the lock, but not the nice little seat back which makes paddling more comfortable. Grabbing a big towel, suit up and head off down the hill to the lake. (Yes, I am lucky enough to live on a lake, it’s fantastic and decadent.) Arriving at the kayak, I realize it has been sitting out all winter and is very dirty, covered with leaves and ants. I haul it into the lake and try to wash it off by tipping it over, sloshing it around in the water and rubbing it with my hands, but I finally have to dedicate my towel to scrubbing it off. Kayak relatively clean at last, I hop in, adjust my headphones and paddle off to deep water.


You wake up early, no one slept well, but that is to be expected the first night out. Loaded in the car, excitement builds. On the road again. The morning drive is stunning, you have now passed the boring California flatland drive of Hwy 5, and are climbing toward Lake Shasta, craggy Grand Tetons visible in the distance. The lack of sleep catches up, and you switch drivers early, nice to be able to rotate frequently. The rest stop has a view of the lake, clean bathrooms and some picnic tables. After a few minutes outside the air conditioned car, you are all sweating, even though it is still early morning. Drive on through the mountains. You stop for lunch at a nice rest stop by a river, and now it is really hot. Studying the map, the alternate route along the coastline, although it adds two hundred miles, is looking quite desirable. After a brief flash of guilt, this route bypasses some friends you had hoped to visit, you make a group decision that you are all much too hot, a cooler route would be the best choice.

I make it out to my favorite swimming spot, basking in the glorious morning and, for the hundredth time, wondering why I always forget how much I love it out on the lake. My back hurts a little, really have to find that comfortable little seat for tomorrow. I pull the kayak up on shore, using a neighbor’s concrete boat ramp, which provides a way for me to get into the water without slupping through mud and with the minimum of slimy weeds tickling my legs, making my heart beat fast with thoughts of lake sharks and sea monsters. I have always been a “dive in quick” sort of person, no creeping into cold water for me, or I will turn around and change my mind. Knee deep, hands in the tight inverted V, I plunge in. Aggggg! The water is so cold my lungs are paralyzed, arms can’t paddle, legs frozen in place. I hold onto the little paddle board and shudder in a breathe. I can do this! I kick out and my body adjusts to the water, either that or I am so numb with frostbite that I just don’t feel it anymore.